BajaNomad

Driving to Scammon's in the 1960's via Gonzaga!

David K - 11-11-2009 at 02:36 PM

WHALES AT PLAY by Slim Barnard

Found this single sheet travel guide from an unknown publisher and unknown date, in Choral Pepper's collections... Sponsored by the Southern California Ford Dealers and Channel 4 (Los Angeles).

Would be interested in learning the date this was made... mid 1960's, most likely... Maybe the T.V. show ad would help: 'The Happy Wanderers' Thursday 7 pm...?

Interesting trip... It was faster to go from L.A. to Baja Sur via Mexicali and Gonzaga Bay back then... Hwy. 1 pavement ended before Colonet and there was terrible washboard from there to past San Quintin. Then the Laguna Chapala dust bowl was the worst part of the old main road!

The old road south of Puertecitos was a 4WD trail over the steep grades... but still better than the main road south... until the end of 1973!

First both sides, then up close to read easier...













Russ - 11-11-2009 at 04:00 PM

Really interesting! Thankx

Diver - 11-11-2009 at 04:11 PM

I KNEW it was a FORD guy that discovered and explored Baja !! :lol::lol::lol:

Must have been a heck of a trip back then.

noproblemo2 - 11-11-2009 at 05:47 PM

Lobster, $0:D.25 a pound!!!!!!!!

Barry A. - 11-11-2009 at 05:53 PM

In roughly 1963 Myron Smith and I purchased a kilo of fresh shrimp in San Felipe for $2.70 usd. What a feast we had that night in the mouth of Agua Caliente Canyon below and east of Mission San Pedro Martir in the SPM mountains with Bud Bernhard and many others.

Them wer the days----------:D

Barry

The Happy Wanderers

makana.gabriel - 11-11-2009 at 06:03 PM

http://www.calgold.com/visiting/Default.asp?Series=400&S...

Packoderm - 11-11-2009 at 06:21 PM

If the minimum wage is any indicator, I'd say those prices are right in line with the times. Min. wage was $1.00 per hour in 1960. It is $7.25 today. The purchasing power is about the same if you take inflation into account.
Minimum wage through the years: http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0774473.html

Remembering What a Buck Could Buy in the 1960s: http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/remembering-what-a-buc...

David K - 11-12-2009 at 09:55 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by makana.gabriel
http://www.calgold.com/visiting/Default.asp?Series=400&S...


Thanks... anything more to pinpoint the date would be appreciated... other than buying that episode of Huell Howser's show... which I am sure is AMAZING!

David K - 3-2-2013 at 10:16 AM

Bump... to compare with getting to Scammon's today to see the whales!

watizname - 3-2-2013 at 10:36 AM

Wow!! "Every Thursday night and IN COLOR"
Watt will they think of next??

More Great Stuff. Thanks.:bounce:

willardguy - 3-2-2013 at 11:16 AM

slim and henrietta. slim had funniest laugh ever!:lol:

Vince - 3-2-2013 at 03:58 PM

Looking for photos, but I will never forget driving across the Laguna Chapala in my VW van being buried in that fine silty dust. It plugged my air filter and we had to clear it out. On the way down from San Felipe the old bus would barely make it over the steep grades of the road. I hear is is much easier now and faster than the main road also.

David K - 3-2-2013 at 07:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Vince
Looking for photos, but I will never forget driving across the Laguna Chapala in my VW van being buried in that fine silty dust. It plugged my air filter and we had to clear it out. On the way down from San Felipe the old bus would barely make it over the steep grades of the road. I hear is is much easier now and faster than the main road also.


Vince, I am glad I was old enough to experience and remember Laguna Chapala in the pre- Hwy. 1 of Dec., 1973 days!

It was 1966, on our trip from Tijuana to Cabo San Lucas (then back via the Mazatlan ferry from La Paz) in a Jeep Wagoneer.

The Grosso ranch was in the middle between the silt dust bowl and the dry lake bed. You had the worst and best parts of the old main road, right there on each side of the ranch! You dropped into the silt, and it would engulf your vehicle like water pouring all over it. All you could do was take a bearing on the trees at the ranch, a couple miles across the silt bowl, then drive blind in that direction!

On the other side of the ranch, you where on the dry lake, and for a couple of miles go freeway speed to blow as much dust off as possible. Then take out your air filter and shake a bucket of dust out of it!!! :lol::lol::lol::yes::wow:

My dad would not go that way again, the next year when we went to L.A. Bay for vacation... we went down from San Felipe over the 'Gonzaga Grades' (as my folks called the steep 4WD hills between Puertecitos and El Huerfanito... forever changed by the 1986 graded road... and now a super paved highway and 110 kph speed limit! What once took 5 hours to drive, now takes less than 1!

[Edited on 3-3-2013 by David K]